“Mos Eisley spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”
We ventured out to Rockingham Speedway where the Carolina Rebellion concert was being held. Awesome music, but, it was crazy. I am not talking about the "freak factor" or normal crazy stuff. I am talking about the ickiness which I have not seen at other concert venues. It was very dusty and I was positive that if the zombie apocalypse was about to happen, the virus would be spread there. Airborne or possibly in the beer tap. My friend Tracie told me that if the ZA happens, we would have to hide in the porta potties a couple of days and then we would be ok. I think I would prefer turning into a zombie. I have re-occuring nightmares about public toilets.
It was extremely hot. The night before one of our friends who is one of those rescue medical people had to helicopter in to save a guy. His internal body temperature was 110 degrees. He is going to have permanent brain damage. So sad.
At the POD stage, I realized how important it is to go to concerts with people who watch the same shows/read the same books. There was a huge staghead on their banner. How could a Game of Thrones fan not say something about the Baratheon logo? There was a stag head.
Chevelle was the best.
Five Finger Death Punch? The guitarist has the most awesome beard ever.
My videos of the concert are awful. I am learning how to work my phone, and people were bumping into me. People who could possibly vomit on me at any moment, and no one there had ever heard about the personal bubble space concept. But that brings me to my next musing.
I am in love. With my phone. First time I have had a smart phone and it is a real learning curve. My videos stink because of user error, but the sound is good. But this phone is incredible. I love it so much, I feel like I am in an outer limits episode, being in love with an android and all. I am such a nerd.
1. We took a trip down to Fort Jackson, SC today. My husband got his official military id card which means we get discounts on everything from phones to concert tickets. Who would have thought? We are going to take advantage of that this Saturday as we attend Carolina Rebellion, which is a huge music festival with bands that we love like Chevelle, Evanescence, POD, Five Finger Death Punch (not a fan of the name but they are really cool), Shinedown, and some others.
Aug. 20, 1992, James departed from home, went to Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri to do basic training. Now 20 years later, he will be going through another type of training altogether. He will be going through CH-BOLC which is training for military chaplains. Of course, he is pretty ambitious and is planning on becoming a chaplain with every type of extra training he can get. Airborne, Air Assault, and also Ranger school.
2. So, since I am quite convinced that the great number of people who visit my blogs don't really read my posts, I will ramble on and not worry about boring anyone.. So ...Thinking about music, I have really been liking Flyleaf lately. Their second album "Memento Mori" seems to be even better than their first.
I love this song:
Sorrow
Sometimes life seems too quiet
Into paralyzing silence
Like the moonless dark
Meant to make me strong
Familiar breath of my old lies
Changed the color in my eyes
Soon he will perforate the fabric of the peaceful by and by
Left alone with only reflections of the memory
To face the ugly girl that's smothering me
Sitting closer than my pain
He knew each tear before it came
Soon He will perforate the fabric of the peaceful by and by
And we kiss each other one more time
And sing this lie that's halfway mine
The sword is slicing through the question
So I won't be fooled by his angel light
Sorrow lasts through this night
I'll take this piece of you
And hope for all eternity
For just one second I felt whole
As you flew right through me
And up into the stars
Joy will come
3. I hate coffee tables. I never did like them, but now.....grrr....
I havent had one ever, because I had kids and I was positively convinced that they would bang their noggins on the corners and they just added clutter anyway. BUT... in order to sell the house, I bought one to stage the living room properly. You know, like in the HGTV shows. Within a couple of days, I was moving too quickly and my toe smacked against a corner. It snapped, cracked, whatever. It hurt. I said calmly "I broke my toe". I guess because I didn't scream or cry, no one knew that it REALLY hurt. I should have sworn a few times to get sympathy. Anyway 3 1/2 weeks later, it still hurts!
I found ducktape that is tie dyed, however and now atleast it looks cool, all taped up, although big, fat and swollen. OK, enough complaining. But since I assume no one would read this much, I will go on.
Picture of my broken fat toe with the coolest duck tape ever... tie dye purple and blue
Sometimes an epiphany will knock you on the side of your head.
What? Someone who seems so sweet, frail, and well meaning, although hurt could be manipulating me? And I let it happen? Inconceivable.
But perhaps not, here is my proof...
Case in point #1:
A sweet old peddler lady's apples would never be expected to be poisonous, but then again, Snow White should have been more cautious after the hair comb nearly killed her....
Case in point #2:
Miss Havisham had Pip totally fooled in Great Expectations. She appeared to be bitter, but frail and hurt from the past. He actually believed she was his benefactor, yet all she was bent on was manipulating his life for her own sick pleasure.
Case in point #3:
Perhaps this one is a stretch, but I don't care. It is my blog and I can ramble on however I want. Obi Wan never believed that Anakin could become a Sith Lord, even though he knew he had a dark side. He could not have been more wrong.
There are many other stories of being manipulated and fooled by a sweet innocent friend. However, I will just end my entry with some great quotes.
"Everyone you meet has an agenda. Everyone." - anonymous
"Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody". - Agatha Christie
"You can't trust any bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing you can do about it, so let's have a drink" -
Terry Pratchett
"Distrust all those who love you extremely upon a very slight acquaintance and without any visible reason.” - Lord Chesterfield (who I believe had something to do with brewing a particular beverage)
For the record, they should have included a category for Battlestar Galactica. I love Firefly, Star Trek and the original Star Wars, but BSG is... I hate to say it is my favorite, but yes, it is. Probably in my top 5 tv shows of all time.
"Who knows what evil lurkes in the hearts of men?"
The Shadow knows.
I have always liked that line from the epic radio show of the 1940s. I had a few vinyl recordings with episodes, which I thought were awesome as a kid. The movie "The Shadow" was somewhat of a disappointment.
The other day I was listening to this song named "Forty-six and two" by Tool. It is actually featured in the opening of Captain America: The First Avenger. A line caught my ear, and I looked up the lyrics. It is an intense song. My husband told me that the reason why it sounds so haunting is because of the beat. The song is written in 4/4 timing, everyone plays to that time, EXCEPT the drummer. He plays in 7/8 time. So most of the time, the drumming is slightly off, it works incredibly.
Here it is
My shadow's
shedding skin and
I've been picking
Scabs again.
I'm down
Digging through
My old muscles
Looking for a clue.
I've been crawling on my belly
Clearing out what could've been.
I've been wallowing in my own confused
And insecure delusions
For a piece to cross me over
Or a word to guide me in.
I wanna feel the changes coming down.
I wanna know what I've been hiding in
My shadow.
Change is coming through my shadow.
My shadow's shedding skin
I've been picking
My scabs again.
I've been crawling on my belly
Clearing out what could've been.
I've been wallowing in my own chaotic
And insecure delusions.
I wanna feel the change consume me,
Feel the outside turning in.
I wanna feel the metamorphosis and
Cleansing I've endured within
My shadow
Change is coming.
Now is my time.
Listen to my muscle memory.
Contemplate what I've been clinging to.
Forty-six and two ahead of me.
I choose to live and to
Grow, take and give and to
Move, learn and love and to
Cry, kill and die and to
Be paranoid and to
Lie, hate and fear and to
Do what it takes to move through.
I choose to live and to
Lie, kill and give and to
Die, learn and love and to
Do what it takes to step through.
See my shadow changing,
Stretching up and over me.
Soften this old armor.
Hoping I can clear the way
By stepping through my shadow,
Coming out the other side.
Step into the shadow.
Forty six and two are just ahead of me.
Upon first reading of the lyrics, I had this vision from Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. In Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Eustace sheds his skin. He was cursed and became a dragon, and in order to become human again, he must shed his dragon skin. He couldn't do it without the help of Aslan, however.
But this song has nothing to do with Narnia. This song is based on Carl Jung's Shadow Theory . And a theory by Drunvalo Melchisedek, who believed that eventually mankind will evolve to a heightened perfect state of existence. Melchisedek believed we will then have 2 more chromosomes then we have now. It is referred to as "Christ Consciousness" and he believed Christ had this mutation and was why he was perfect. I don't generally like any type of trying to scientifically quantify Christ. But otherwise the theory is interesting science fiction. The idea of becoming "Christlike" is what most christians strive toward. This goal has almost become cliched and trite, especially with the commercialization of WWJD. However, it is not trite, but rather complicated. Becoming Christlike will mean something different to almost anyone you ask, not even including the differences of thought between Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, etc... But back to the song...
So, this song combines the cool chromosome concept with the Shadow Theory, which is the idea that we all have a part of our unconscious self which is evil and destructive. It is called the shadow, and our aim should be to overcome it, but we can't until we realize it is there. Kind of sounds like the 'old man' spoke of in the Bible. The part of ourselves which we need to fight against if we are to be holy.
So, Maynard Keenan (songwriter and lead singer of Tool) believes that the shadow will not be present in the future human... the ones with forty-six and two chromosomes. Curiously Campbell (of A Hero of a Thousand Faces) and Jung had similiar ideas concerning the collective human conscience and why there are so many similiar ideas throughout the globe and various cultures.
Of course, when reading about these theories, reminded my of something I read a while back. Actually I listened to an audio book, but its the same thing. American Gods by Neil Gaiman has a main character named Shadow. I think that Gaiman had to have had this Shadow theory in mind when writing. After all, the main character is a demi god with a sorted past, and he is on a journey of self realization throughout the book. In addition, the book must go through the Hero's Journey 2 or 3 times. It doesn't get old, either. Shadow is a conflicted character who at the end is ready to sacrifice his life to rid the world of the evil he encounters. The sacrifice is Christ-like, but his character is more similiar to the gods of old (which is what the book is about). He is revealed as Balder, who is the sun-god or god of light in Norse mythology.
